"Corne from? Why, I belong here. What are you doip'? Where do you work?"
" In New York."
" New York!" exclaimed the boy, and he uttered a prolonged whistle. "You don't mean to say that you was sent way down here with a message, do you?"
"See here," Joe made up his mind in an instant, "I'm in an awful bad scrape, an' so is this little feller; sit down here an' I'll tell you all about it."
"All right; but I guess we'd better get behind those barrels, 'cause if anybody should see me they'd think I ought to go back to the. office, even if I have got half an hour off."
A convenient place for conversation was found behind some barrels, where the two were almost completely screened from view, and then Joe told the story; but not without many interruptions in the way of exclamations of surprise, almost incredulity, from his brother messenger. He concluded by telling the story of their meeting with Master West, and his offer to take them to New York in his yacht.
"Was it Bart West that you met?" asked the boy.
"His name was Bartholomew."
" An' where is the boat? "
Joe explained, as well as he was able, the locality in which they had seen the yacht, and the messenger said, quickly: